Tuesday, October 04, 2005

"Text and 121 hand colored lithographs from: The history of the Indian tribes of North America, with biographical sketches and anecdotes of the principal chiefs. Embellished with one hundred and twenty portraits, from the Indian gallery in the Department of war, at Washington. By Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall. Philadelphia, E. C. Biddle, 1836-1844."

Keukuk was chief of the Sauks and Musquakees (Sacs & Foxes) - 2 tribes that lived together at Rock River, near the junction of the Mississippi, in Illinois. They followed a custom whereby each new male child was painted with a white or black mark and in alternating, divided the male population in half. It established a sense of rivalry in playing ball games or in examining which division brought home more scalps.

This portrait of Ne-Sou-A-Quoit or Bear in the Fork of a Tree, a Fox Indian, was made in 1837 in the city of Washington. He had 7 wives, was known for his generosity and the author found it notable that Ne-Sou-A-Quoit abstained from both alcohol and pipe smoking.